Another KPA Thread... PROFILE!!

[SBRocket]

I've had the KPA for a week now and even though it was a crazy work week, I did find some time to experiment with it by playing with the factory profiles and rigs and I really dug the sounds, but...

Today I profiled my first amp and I have to say that if you have a Kemper and you haven't tried it yet, PROFILE!!

The unit sounds great, awesome and all that but the profiling thing is simply magic. Before I did it I was happy with the tones I as getting, but to actually plug in and get one of my tones into the box was one of the most astounding tech accomplishments I've ever seen. (This coming from a guy who worked at Digidesign when PT 1.0 came out)

This thing and what it does it astounding. Don't miss the boat Kemper owners...PROFILE. I have seen the future.

SB

 

[Audioholic]

I've had the KPA for a week now and even though it was a crazy work week, I did find some time to experiment with it by playing with the factory profiles and rigs and I really dug the sounds, but...

Today I profiled my first amp and I have to say that if you have a Kemper and you haven't tried it yet, PROFILE!!

The unit sounds great, awesome and all that but the profiling thing is simply magic. Before I did it I was happy with the tones I as getting, but to actually plug in and get one of my tones into the box was one of the most astounding tech accomplishments I've ever seen. (This coming from a guy who worked at Digidesign when PT 1.0 came out)

This thing and what it does it astounding. Don't miss the boat Kemper owners...PROFILE. I have seen the future.

SB

Awesome, just got mine, I plan on profiling my 2 amps hopefully in a week or so when I get some down time. hope to have a worthy and sharable profile, which I will sell for a nominal fee. haha just kidding

 

[chameleon101663]

I've had the KPA for a week now and even though it was a crazy work week, I did find some time to experiment with it by playing with the factory profiles and rigs and I really dug the sounds, but...

Today I profiled my first amp and I have to say that if you have a Kemper and you haven't tried it yet, PROFILE!!

The unit sounds great, awesome and all that but the profiling thing is simply magic. Before I did it I was happy with the tones I as getting, but to actually plug in and get one of my tones into the box was one of the most astounding tech accomplishments I've ever seen. (This coming from a guy who worked at Digidesign when PT 1.0 came out)

This thing and what it does it astounding. Don't miss the boat Kemper owners...PROFILE. I have seen the future.

SB

+1

I couldn't agree more! When you hear YOUR gear captured and reproducing all the subtle nuances that you've grown accustomed to over the years...it really is magic. I still can't believe it's so easy. I've played my guitar more in the last 4 days since I got the Kemper than in the last 4 months before it. It really feels and sounds like the real thing.

 

[sheguitarplayer]

+1000. Using a Kemper without profiling is like driving a ferrarri at 50mph

 

[Dr Git]

Hope i'm not sounding stupid here, but what the difference between what you profile, and what came on the machine. Aren't the ones preloaded good as well.?????

 

[mdme_sadie]

I found the premade profiles to be 99% horrible. Everyone has their own idea of what a "good" amp sound is, for me the guitar sounds I hear on records and from studios currently as well as that normal amp sims make doesn't fall anywhere near that category. The profiles that come with the KPA for me were mostly those sorts of close mic'd clinical dead tones.

Then on top of that everyone has to set up an amp for it to be good with how they play, when people talk about amp sweet spots it's often assumed that this is some golden position that sounds great no matter who's playing it and what they're playing, but it's not like that, a sweet spot for an amp is really a sweet spot for an player, guitar and amp combination (and mic, recording desk etc). So if you want a tone that's perfect for you then you're going to need to dial that in on a real amp and profile that yourself.

The KPA really is a tool for people who are happy with real amps and want more of that but with the advantages of digital form. The amp sim and tweaking side, that's ok, but only as good as other amp sims.

 

[Dr Git]

I see your opinion. Ok, that aside, how many amp profiles can the KPA hold. Like say a Axe FX holds nearly 400 presets, how many profiles does this hold without any overload

 

[mdme_sadie]

I believe a thousand, but I doubt that's due to memory constraints as the files are tiny, more likely they just set it up with a fixed number that seemed more than enough at the time.

 

[luntho]

I see your opinion. Ok, that aside, how many amp profiles can the KPA hold. Like say a Axe FX holds nearly 400 presets, how many profiles does this hold without any overload

not sure, I try too keep it down to around 200, but I know some folks at kemper forum had over 500

 

[SBRocket]

Hope i'm not sounding stupid here, but what the difference between what you profile, and what came on the machine. Aren't the ones preloaded good as well.?????

I think a lot of the presets are pretty good (some are great) and they are great starting points for tweaking. They sound a lot like patches from other modelers and sims. But as I said the real beauty of this is just getting you sound on your rig and capturing it.

I was happy playing with the other profiles for a week but after profiling, I'm trying to figure out how to buy back all my old amps for a day at a time...

SB

 

[sheguitarplayer]

I think a lot of the presets are pretty good (some are great) and they are great starting points for tweaking. They sound a lot like patches from other modelers and sims. But as I said the real beauty of this is just getting you sound on your rig and capturing it.


SB

Yes, and its not until you do it and compare that you realise just how great the KPA is.

 

[Gasp100]

I think people are actually going to get better at profiling over time and develop a workflow that creates amazingly accurate profiles that sound incredible, can be tweaked well with the Kemper and translate well over different setups - direct to disk, frfr and amp cabs. I have no doubt some pros are going to start a market for selling super high quality profiles and I will be in for sure. I profiled my Roland Cube 30 cleans and pushing that through my 1x12 with power amp loud sounds freaking huge, I barely knew what I was doing during the process. But I also started to recognize some traits of the Kemper that seem to be added. I thing you might need to accentuate or pull back some eq or gain on you amp, really work with levels, definitely work on the best mic setup for the amp AND more importantly best mic setup specific to creating the best profile, profile EQ, post profile light tweaks, etc...
For stock profiles anything that was authored by M.Franzkowiak has sounded great to my ears... Hoping for more!

 

[Jay Mitchell]

But I also started to recognize some traits of the Kemper that seem to be added. I thing you might need to accentuate or pull back some eq or gain on you amp, really work with levels, definitely work on the best mic setup for the amp AND more importantly best mic setup specific to creating the best profile, profile EQ, post profile light tweaks, etc...

IOW, you must spend time to gain the requisite skills, in exactly the same way you must spend time with any piece of gear in order to achieve the best possible results.

Until later today, I have no experience with the KPA, so I take no position on the quality of sounds/feels it can produce, but I will observe that your very reasonable statement is the antithesis of the "plug and play" selling point that a number of individuals have been making wrt the KPA.

FWIW, I have neither interest in nor use for "plug and play," either in music or in life, so I my remarks constitute a neutral observation, not a criticism. None of the equipment I use is "plug and play."

 

[Professor Tweed]

Would strongly recommend profiling. My favourites so far all user profiles - 65 Deluxe, 64 and 59 Bassman, Armin's 57 Deluxe (great, but not free), Super Reverb 65. I think I've now got a profile of my 58 Deluxe which hits my sweet spot.

Can also confirm that if you have an attenuator with a way of getting a line out, go for that and make DI profiles and then select one of the many cabs available. That way you don't have to have the industrial noise of profiling your mic'd up amp - which may upset the neighbours and traumatise their pets.

Pretty soon I'm going to clear out my profile list and just have 50 on the machine. Maybe that'd be a good resolution for Lent - no new profiles till Easter. Got to start making some music now.

 

[Gasp100]

I'm quickly falling in love with a few. The 65 Deluxe and Kingsley DC30, sheguitarplayer's 5150 III (EVH Lead?), Daniel Pee's Triple Recto, and someone just posted a Vibro Champ, Swart Pro (is that you SBRocket?), a killer Vibrolux and stock Champ and AC30's. So many more to choose and tweak, that is what I'm using right now. I will clip later to show the different Fender flavors from some user profiles, very intriguing.

 

[Audioholic]

Just profiled my amp. The profile sounded pretty spot on to the original. Amazing

 

[SBRocket]

I'm quickly falling in love with a few. The 65 Deluxe and Kingsley DC30, sheguitarplayer's 5150 III (EVH Lead?), Daniel Pee's Triple Recto, and someone just posted a Vibro Champ, Swart Pro (is that you SBRocket?), a killer Vibrolux and stock Champ and AC30's. So many more to choose and tweak, that is what I'm using right now. I will clip later to show the different Fender flavors from some user profiles, very intriguing.

Yes the Swart AST was me! I really could not believe how the KPA captured the Swart tone, totally nailed it.

I'm going to profile a few more settings I love on that amp tomorrow. Then it's time to set up for shows. I bought a Ground Control Pro this week and we have a bunch of gigs coming up... Good times.

Steve

 

[Orren]

Hope i'm not sounding stupid here, but what the difference between what you profile, and what came on the machine. Aren't the ones preloaded good as well.?????

You're not being stupid.

A profile captures the entire signal chain: in other words, not only does it capture the texture of your amp and cabinet, but your microphone and mic preamp.

This means that a profile might be named "Marshall JCM800" but could be a JCM 800 into a Crate 1x12 recorded by an off-axis Chinese $50 mic with no preamp, or it could be a JCM 800 into a Marshall 4x12 recorded by a dead-center Royer R-121 ribbon mic into a Millennium (very high end pro audio pristine clean) preamp.

Also, a profile captures a very specific setting on an amplifier—you can use the KPA's own knobs to adjust the EQ, gain, etc. but the original amp was profiled at a specific setting of each knob.

The vast majority of the KPA shipping presets were recorded in very good studios, with good mics. So I think that the vast majority of the presets are very true to the original amps at the settings they were profiled.

That is a very important aspect of the profile. For example, what if all my guitars are single coils, so I turn down the treble and presence a lot, and turn up the gain, for all my profiles? If you call up my profiles, you might think that they all lack treble and are too gainy, depending on your guitars.

So my take is that the vast majority of included presets (and there are LOTS of them...I'm not sure how many come from the factory because I have so many more at this point, but it was hundreds) are recorded well and sound good for the right guitar at the right setting, just like some amps sound better with some guitars at some settings.

But your own profiles custom made for your own guitars will always sound more like "what you hear in the room" because, well, it is what you hear in the room. (but you also need a decent mic to capture the profile, of course!)

Orren